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WIPO SMEs Newsletter March 2013

By the SMEs Section of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

WIPO SMEs Newsletter is a monthly e-publication providing readers with useful intellectual
property (IP) information contained in articles, case studies, forthcoming IP/SMEs relevant events,
and published presentations featured on our web site. We hope you will find it useful and
informative. We encourage you to share the newsletter or items of interest with friends and
colleagues. For past issues and information on the activities of the SMEs Section, please
visit
http://www.wipo.int/sme.

NEWS

African Ministers Discuss Innovation and IP at WIPO Conference

Some twenty African ministers, senior policy makers and entrepreneurs met at
a two-day conference in Dar es
Salaam (Tanzania), on March 12 and 13, 2013 to discuss the role of intellectual property (IP)
in stimulating innovation and development. The conference is also addressing the importance
of innovation in dealing with some of today’s most pressing global challenges, such as public
health, food security and climate change.

The conference brings together ministers responsible for IP related matters, ministers for
science and technology, heads of IP offices, as well as representatives of research and development
(R&D) institutions and innovation centers, entrepreneurs from small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs), major industrial companies operating in Africa, regional economic communities
and regional financial institutions to discuss a wide-ranging agenda on how the continent can best
capitalize on IP for promoting innovation.

Discussion on Innovation and Small to Medium-sized Enterprisesat the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Council

This is the
second time
the TRIPS council has discussed innovation, this time with the focus on small to medium-sized
enterprises. A number of speakers described how these companies are essential for their economies,
providing employment for up to two-thirds of the workforce. Protecting innovation and ideas through
intellectual property is important for the companies, they said.

But governments need to support them in order increase their awareness of intellectual property
systems, help them move their products on from development to the market, encourage domestic and
international collaboration in innovation, make registering trademarks and patents simpler and
cheaper, and help them protect their intellectual property domestically and abroad, speakers
said.

Chile and some other developing countries described how they have introduced programmes to move
their economies away from dependence on natural resources to activities based on knowledge. Some
countries gave examples of government helping companies protect their new ideas. Japan cited the
case of a company that developed a technique for
making round fruit square. Australia spoke of a
surfer who invented a sling for carrying surfboards.

Some less developed countries agreed that smaller companies are important for their economies,
but added that they are still far from being able to innovate and make money from their ideas.
Therefore the importance of intellectual property to these companies differs in countries at
different levels of development, they said

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an observer in the TRIPS Council,
described some of the organization’s programmes and the findings in economic research on the
relationship between the size of enterprise and innovation.

EPO Advisory Board publishes recommendations for improving the patent system

The EPO's Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) has issued a statement with
recommendations for improving the patent system, based on the main findings of its 2012 activities.
Along with this statement, the ESAB has also published the reports of three workshops it conducted
in 2012, namely on patent quality, the role of fees, and patent thickets.

In these publications the Board highlights the importance of patent quality in boosting
innovation. It points out that improving patent quality will require action at both the pre-and
post-grant stages of the patenting process. In the pre-grant phase, specific measures are needed to
address the speed and quality of patent examination. At the post-grant stage, opposition and
re-examination proceedings require improvement, together with the litigation system. On this latter
point, the establishment of Europe's Unified Patent Court is expected to make a major contribution.

In its third study - on patent thickets - the Board clearly states that it does not regard
such "thickets" as a root cause of problems in the patent system. It concludes that measures
to improve patent quality will help to reduce the complexity of the system and thus deal with
patent thickets indirectly.

At its second annual meeting in January 2013, ESAB members also decided on the three specific
policy issues to be addressed in 2013: the economic effects of the unitary patent and the Unified
Patent Court, two questions of particular relevance following the recent decisions taken at the EU
level, and the possible impact of a grace period in Europe from an economic perspective. For
more information, click
here.

USPTO and NIST Release New Version of IP Awareness Assessment Tool

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) today unveiled an updated
beta version of the web-based IP Awareness Assessment Tool, which is designed to help
manufacturers, small businesses, entrepreneurs and independent inventors easily assess their
knowledge of intellectual property (IP).

Intellectual property is a key concern of many small businesses owners who often do not know the
extent of their IP assets. By assessing their need for IP protection and exercising the rights they
hold to their innovations, businesses often secure significant competitive advantages.

The IP Awareness Assessment Tool enables users to measure and increase their awareness of IP
issues, relevant to their creative projects and business goals. Users answer a comprehensive set of
questions regarding IP, after which the tool provides a set of training resources tailored to
specifically identified needs. The tool is available on USPTO’s website at
www.uspto.gov/inventors/assessment/.

Resources on IP Asset Management

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office
(KIPO), the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and the Korea Invention
Promotion Association (KIPA) are jointly offering the advanced international certificate course on
IP Asset Management for business success based on IP PANORAMA
TM Multimedia toolkit in English.

This course consists of the following three components:

Step 1) Online course;

Step 2) IP essay test; and

Step 3) Offline program.

The online course will be offered three times, for six weeks per session, all in English and
with the assistance of course administrators and tutors through the KIPA e-learning website (http://global.ipacademy.net). It is based on the
twelve modules of the English IP PANORAMA as per the following schedule:

Session 1: March 27 to May 7, 2013 (Enrollment: March 7 to 26, 2013)

Session 2: May 1 to June 11, 2013 (Enrollment: April 11 to 25, 2013)

Session 3: June 5 to July 16, 2013 (Enrollment: May 16 to 30, 2013)

Students who successfully complete a session of the online course with at least 80% of course
attendance and a grade of 60% or above in the final exam will be eligible for the IP essay test.

Up to 10 students from developing countries who are top performers in both the online course
(Step1) and the IP essay test (Step 2) will be given an opportunity to participate in the offline
program, which is a three-day face-to-face training to learn and discuss some advanced topics and
issues on IP asset management. These students will receive a scholarship to cover travel and
accommodations in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in November.

General Information on Training of Trainers Program, the SMEs Section, WIPO

The SMEs Section of WIPO supports the organization of national Training of Trainers (TOT)
Programs in countries that have translated and/or adapted the basic materials on IP for Business
published by the Section. The objective of the TOTs is to create a critical mass of trainers in the
country with enough knowledge and skills to provide assistance to SMEs on effective IP asset
management at a basic level. For more details, please see
here.

CD-ROMs of the English, Arabic, French and Spanish versions are also available on
request. Anyone interested in receiving a free copy of the CD-ROM may email
sme@wipo.int providing the full postal address, including
telephone number, and indicating the purpose for which the CD-ROM would be used.
Please note that requests without complete postal address will not be processed.

LINKS

IP strategy and management at SME’s service

This
case study shows a good example of an SME that has developed efficient IP strategy and
management practices. The study puts forward the idea that the pre-condition for successfully
carrying out business activities is not only based on the mere knowledge of IP but mainly on the
will of the company to properly manage its intangible asset to reap the full benefits from
it.
More

Patent management in entrepreneurial SMEs: A literature review and an empirical study of
innovation appropriation, patent propensity, and motives

Managers make a number of strategic choices when trying to capture returns from innovation
investments, including what appropriation strategy to use and whether or not to patent, strategic
choices that depend among other things on firm size. Previous literature, being reviewed in this
paper,
shows that the patent propensity is lower in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than in
large firms and that patenting as means for appropriation is of less importance among SMEs. CEOs
and/or R&D managers of 26 entrepreneurial SMEs have been interviewed to explain these
differences and to provide insight on how patenting is used in SMEs.

What is up with the Indian patent scenario?

Indian pharma has witnessed a number of landmark patent decisions that have far-reaching
consequences not only on international players but also on the domestic entities in the Indian
market.
Read
more.

Intellectual Property Fact Sheet India

Doing business in India presents both attractive opportunities and challenges. Companies that
understand India’s unique regulatory and cultural features and prepare for them tend to stand a far
greater chance of success.
This
fact sheet produced by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and International
Enterprise Singapore explains how to manage your IP in India.

Agrifoods: A brief overview of the UK agrifood patent landscape

There are over 3.6m issued patents in the agrifood sector worldwide (approx. 5% of all patents).
The most prolific country is the USA, with a quarter of all agrifood issued patents coming from US
applicants. German applicants are second with 14%, followed by Chinese applicants with 10%. These
top three applicant countries account for almost half (49%) of all agrifood patents.
Read more.

In this article the authors argue that for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), patent
protection can be complex and costly. And yet, for many of them, patent protection is a must to
maintain their competitive edge. A fast and cheap option for protecting mechanical inventions,
products, and in some cases compositions, is a utility model, also often called a “petty patent” or
“innovation patent”.
Read
more.

Trade Secrets: A Guidebook for Technical and Business Professionals Involved in Legally
Protecting Products Technologies and Services

Trade secrets can be a valuable component of an intellectual property (IP) portfolio, whether as
a complement to patents or as an alternative. Companies benefit from an IP portfolio that matches
the unique benefits of trade secrets and patents to the types of information they seek to protect.
Trade secret protection is available immediately, without going through a government agent, whereas
a patent is available only after an application to and approval by the government. And unlike
patents, trade secrets provide IP protection of potentially infinite duration. Trade secret
protection is also available for a broad array of information for which patents are not
available.To download the guidebook, please click
here.

Revising EU legislation on Trademarks

On 27 March 2013 the European Commission will adopt proposals to revise the existing EU
legislation on trade marks. In order to improve conditions for business to innovate, the Commission
considers that it is time for a review of the trademark system in Europe, and for further
improvement of cooperation between the
EU Trade Marks and Designs Agency and
national industrial property offices.
Read
more.

Brands, Competition, and the Law

Brands matter. In modern times, brands and brand management have become a central feature of
the modern economy and a staple of business theory and business practice. Contrary to the law’s
conception of trademarks, brands are used to indicate far more than source and/or quality.
In this article
Professor Desai and Waller begin the process of broadening the legal understanding of brands by
explaining what brands are and how they function, how trademark and antitrust law have
misunderstood brands, and the implications of continuing to ignore the role brands play in business
competition.

Adapting brand names for the Chinese market

In this
article,
Liz Castleman examines the strategies
Western companies are using to adapt their names for the Chinese market which consist essentially
of three general approaches: transliteration, translation and hybrid.

The BrandZ™ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2013

The
study
by WPP’s Millward Brown Optimor examines many of the key issues shaping China’s most valuable
brands and the Chinese market. The study begins with highlights of the extensive data and
analysis that’s presented in four sections: Part 1. Trends and Insights; Part 2. The Top 50 Results
and Analysis, including the ranking of the 2013 China Top 50 according to their valuation results,
and profiles of each of the Top 50 brands; Part 3. Best Practices for Building Brands and Part 4.
Resources.

Forthcoming Events

Creating markets from research results, Munich, May 6 and 7, 2013

The role of universities in national innovation systems has expanded from the production of
scientific knowledge for economic growth to include solving largescalechallenges, such as climate
change and energy and addressing social needs. Further information on this conference organized by
the European Patent Office is available at
http://www.epo.org/learning-events/events/conferences/markets.html

NOTE:

The SMEs Section welcomes voluntary contributions of articles, case studies, news items,
useful links and relevant information concerning forthcoming events of interest to entrepreneurs
and SMEs for inclusion in future issues of this newsletter; contributions may be sent by email to
sme@wipo.int.

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